Lacquer Coated

Late last night I heard the snap of tree branches, the cracking sound of ice breaking, and tinkling through the trees, and then a muffled whump as branch and ice sank into the snow. 

After being house-bound for three days I ventured out early this morning. The temperatures had risen above freezing and I wanted to capture the look of the neighborhood encased in ice. These tiny crab apples coated as if in lacquer, show the beauty from the freezing rain.

I was surprised at the extent of the tree damage caused by this silver thaw. There was nearly a foot of snow and covering it was a thick layer of glistening ice. I saw only a few folks out, one was a young man with a chainsaw. He was cutting up a tree that had fallen, its trunk and broken branches blocking the street. The extras show other sights from my early morning reconnaissance.

"The frozen rain
has polished the snow
to perfection..."

Those few lines by Luminita Suse are an apt description of our region. The temps are now ten degrees above freezing and nearly all the ice has melted off branches, bird feeders, house eaves, and car bumpers. In a day or two, we will be able to rejoin the world!